


To Begin Again

by tomatopudding



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-12
Updated: 2013-02-12
Packaged: 2017-11-29 00:40:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/680709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatopudding/pseuds/tomatopudding
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aspen Davis is ready to start again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Begin Again

**Author's Note:**

> This was an assignment for my creative writing class. We were each given a postcard and we had to write a message on it from one person to another that was somehow related to the picture on the card. Then, we traded postcards with another person in the class and had to write a story about the person their postcard was addressed to.

Aspen Davis dropped her suitcase next to the bed with a sigh. This was it, she was gone. Away from her annoyingly perfect sister and depressed father, away from all the craziness that came from living in a smaller town. This was her, taking control over her own life. It was more lonely that she thought it would be. Aspen walked to the window and stared out at the unfamiliar skyline, tucking a strand of auburn hair behind her ear.

Lonely as it was to be separated from everyone she knew before, things were already starting to look up, but then again anything would be better than the year she had been having. It all started back in July with a trip to the hospital. Stories that started out that way were never good and this had been one of the worst. Aspen was about to start her last year of high school and her sister, Eva, was preparing to leave for the second year at New York University. 

They had been eating lunch with their father, the sisters actually getting along for once, the three of them laughing, when the call came. Their father, who had picked up the phone mid-chuckle, stopped suddenly, the fingers clutched around the phone turning white as he clenched them. 

“What?” he had murmured, eyes widening minutely, the hand not holding the phone beginning to shake.

“I...yes, we’ll be there.”

A moment later, without any explanation, the three of them had piled into their dad’s two-seater car, the sisters pressed uncomfortably together on the passenger seat.

“Dad, this really isn’t safe,” Eva had said, attempting to pull the seatbelt around them both even as they were driving down the road.

“We don’t have time, your mother’s been in an accident,” their dad had said tightly, his hands holding onto the steering wheel so hard it was as if thought it would fly away if he loosened his grip.

This had effectively shut Eva up and Aspen had felt her knees tremble and her heart clench uncomfortably.

Fort Collins wasn’t a huge city by any means, but it seemed to take forever to get to the hospital and their self-imposed silence didn’t help.

Finally, they arrived. Their dad left the car with a valet, something he would never usually do, and the three of them sped inside.

Aspen could still remember that day as if it was yesterday. She shivered despite the comfortable temperature of the dorm room, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. She started out the window, not really seeing what was in front of her.

She’s been hit by a man in a sports car, too busy with his cell phone conversation to notice that his light had turned red. The car was totaled and she was lucky to be alive, the doctor had explained. They should not be alarmed at her appearance.

Their mother had looked so small, laying on that bed surrounded by various tubes and wires. Her eyes were closed as if sleeping, but the doctor’s words echoed in her head. Coma. Her mother was in a coma from which she might never wake. Aspen had stayed pressed against the wall, eyes wide, while Eva and their father approached the bed. Her gaze was fixed on the opposite wall, she couldn’t even get herself to look at the frail woman in the bed. She didn’t want to think about it.

After that, things changed. Their father, who had always been quick with a joke and a grin, became silent and withdrawn. His eyes had lost their sparkle and he seemed to fade into the background. Eva took to the role of den mother like a duck to water. She had been the one who kept them on their feet. Aspen hadn’t even had the energy to hate Eva for being so perfect yet again.

The real trouble started when Eva left for school and only Aspen remained at home with her father. Aspen started eating less and less until she finally almost stopped eating altogether. Her dad was distant and quiet, going through the day on autopilot. The house became littered with take-out containers. Then, school had started. Aspen had never been one of the popular girls, but she had her group of friends and got decent grades. By the time winter break had come along, she had isolated herself from her friends and all of her grades had dropped. Even getting acceptance letters from most of the schools she had applied to didn’t help anything.

It took a letter home from the school nurse for Aspen’s dad to notice anything wrong with her.

“Aspen,” he said one day, the first thing he had said to her in some time.

Aspen, sitting at the kitchen table, had looked up at him forlornly. He held the note in his hand and turned it to face her

 

She had collapsed in class, the note said. Aspen had seen other words there too: bullied, malnourished, failing. 

“Why didn’t you tell me you were having trouble?”

“You had your own trouble,” Aspen had mumbled, looking back down at her hands, “Eva would have been able to handle this.”

“Oh, sweetheart.”

Her dad seemed to snap out of a stupor and spent that first evening after getting that letter hugging her as they cried together.

After that, Aspen accepted the spot she had been offered in Cardiff University and was enrolled in a rehab center for eating disorders. By the time the summer was over, she was back to full health. In fact, she would argue that she was healthier than ever. They stopped by the hospital on the way to the airport and Aspen said goodbye to her mom and that she would come see her when she got home for winter break, somehow managing to squeeze in a hug between the tubes and wires. Although she had spent many hospital visiting hours sitting by her mother’s bedside, this was the first time she had looked at her mother, let alone touched her.

The plane ride to Cardiff, Wales, had been long but definitely worth it. Now she was here. Away from high school bullies and their pettiness, away from rumor-spreading ex-boyfriends, far away from perfect Eva with her perfect grades, ready for a fresh start.

Aspen wiped away and errant tear and turned around as the dorm room door opened, revealing two people. She could tell by the way that they looked that they were twins and they were talking softly to each other in a lilting language Aspen didn’t recognize. The girl stopped as soon as she saw Aspen and the boy soon followed suit.

“Hi!” the girl said. He accent wasn’t quite British, but very close, and Aspen recognized it to be Welsh, “Are you my roommate?”

“Yup, that would be me,” Aspen agreed with a nod and a smile.

“Oh, you’re American!” the girl exclaimed, “That’s fantastic! Isn’t that fantastic, Wyn?”

The boy laughed and shook his head fondly.

“You’ll have to excuse my sister,” he said with a grin, “She’s obsessed with anything and everything American. It’s a sort of reversed Anglophile sort of thing. I’m Arwyn, by the way, but you can call me Wyn. My dorm’s just down the hall.”

“Oh, right,” the girl smacked the heel of her palm on her forehead, “Introductions, sorry. My name’s Myfanwy, but I go by Fanny,” she pulled a face, “I hate the name Myfanwy.”

“I’m Aspen,” Aspen said with a grin, “and I don’t really have an nicknames.”

Fanny laughed and shook Aspen’s hand.

“Oh my goodness, is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer on your shirt? You have to let me borrow it sometime!”

As Fanny continued to chatter and Wyn stood by looking amused, Aspen couldn’t help but smile a smile so wide that it hurt her cheeks. Oh yes, this was going to be a great year.


End file.
